Our Trip To Seacrest Beach, Florida

Friday, May 26, 2017

I have to apologize to you guys for the lateness in my recap from our trip to Seacrest Beach, Florida. It has been a bit of a rough couple of weeks for us and I am just now starting to feel a bit more sane. Sane enough to get this post done since it is long overdue. I will share more in another post since it really does deserve a full post on it's own. But I want to keep the momentum going with sharing a recap of our family vacation, so let's get started!

As you guys know, we went to Seacrest Beach, Florida. I cannot say enough good things about this place. It is magical, laid-back, beautiful, quiet, just everything you'd want a beach town to be. I should probably explain that Seacrest Beach is sandwiched between two other gorgeous beach communities, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach. They're all along the highway 30A, so if you ever hear or see anything about 30A, all of these communities are included in that area. There are more communities along that highway that we didn't get to explore (Seaside Beach is next on our list!), but we will definitely be checking them out when we're there next. If you want to see some really gorgeous photos of the area, check out Will's blog post on his recent trip to the 30A. He's one of my favorite bloggers to follow, his photos are amazing and he's just so darn likable.

Before I go into what we did while we were there, I have to tell you about our lodgings while we were there. We rented a vacation home in the community of Seacrest Beach and it could not have been more perfect. I found our "house" on Homeaway's site and the whole process of renting it was easy and smooth. The owners were so responsive and answered all of our questions, such as do you have a crib or pack-n-play that we could rent (which they did!) and can we check-in early if the property is available? Our flight got in around 11:30am and check-in wasn't til 4pm but because the property was available, we were able to check-in early which was so nice. That way we were able to head to the pool as soon as we could get our suits on!

Here are some snaps of the inside of the home. You can also view more photos here.

My dream kitchen. It's a little hard to tell but that island is a giant square.

View of the screened-in porch from the kitchen. That porch was so great because it allowed for us to be more relaxed with the girls being out there since it was screened in.

The decor was so tastefully done and so comfortable. And the construction of the home was so solid and well thought out. Makes us want to hire the builder for our next home!

The house we stayed in is on the far left. The whole community looks like this, palm lined streets and beautiful beach houses one after the other.

Now onto the beach and the community itself. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. The water was so clear and green/blue (I understand why it's called the Emerald Coast), exactly what it should be in my opinion. If you stay in Seacrest Beach, you can of course walk to the beach from the community but you will have to cross the highway 30A which isn't that big of a deal but just FYI. Or you can take a tram that will pick you up and take you there or really any tram stop in the community. We used it a couple of times to get to the beach and pool and it was great. Makes it easy if you're lugging a lot of stuff.

I should mention that the pool in the Seacrest Beach community is one of the biggest and most child-friendly pools I've ever seen. It's 12,000 square feet and has fountains in the middle. It's just a great place for kids if your kids are all about the pool. It's central to the community making it so easy to get to. It's also got a great open grass space next to it, so if you've got kids that need to run around to get even more energy out (which my kids did every time we were there) then you'll love this community.

On our way to the beach and this was just too perfect not to snap this pic.

How gorgeous is this? Fun fact, the guy who runs the beach umbrella and chairs rentals told us that he came to the 30A 6 years ago for a summer job and never went home because he fell in love with the whole area. We heard other stories from others who did the same thing. I'm telling you guys, this place makes you want to stay and never leave.

Vivi was really apprehensive about the beach. She didn't want to walk in the sand and she most definitely didn't want to go in the water. But because it was our last beach day there, I was determined to get her to at least walk in the sand and take a dip in the water. Once I got her to try, she immediately turned into a beach baby! Here she is loving the sand so much she is putting it all over her head!

Here's the grassy area by the pool that I was talking about. It's got rolling hills which makes it so fun for kids.I think they do outdoor movie nights during the peak season, which makes it easy for everyone to view the screen. Oh, and I was able to find these sandals online that I got last year. You can get them here.

We checked out the Rosemary Beach Farmer's Market on Sunday and they had some great food there. We even spotted Maryland crab cakes which was so nice to see a little bit of home there. We had a mini picnic with the goodies we got and then took a stroll through the neighborhood.

Having some fun during one of my outfit shoots. I wish her dress came in my size!

A nice passerby offered to take our photo after seeing me taking pics of Steve and the girls. This was the only family photo we got. Not too bad, eh?

We were strolling through the community of Rosemary Beach and stopped by this fountain for a quick photo op.

How gorgeous are the homes? I wish I had taken more photos while we were strolling through. Next time!

Bike riding is an absolute must if you're going to visit. There's places where you can rent them, so no need to bring your own. They also have bikes with attachments like this one so kids can ride with you. The bike I rode had a trailer attachment for Vivi which was great. She really enjoyed that and if Cora ever got tired from riding on the other one, she would sit in the trailer with Vivi.

We tried the donuts at Donut Hole in Inlet Beach and I can honestly say that they have the best chocolate frosted donuts I've ever had. It's funny, on their logo (on the corn hole boards) they have a pink sprinkled donut, which is why we decided to go there because that's Cora's favorite donut. Well, guess what? They don't offer them! How crazy it that?? I think someone needs to let their marketing people know that they are falsely advertising.

Just another one of the many beautiful homes in the neighborhood that I couldn't help but take a picture.

The last full day we were there, we rode our bikes to Alys Beach to try out Charlie's Donuts and they did not disappoint one bit. I actually wished that we had done that every morning because a bike ride to it was so picturesque and then to eat yummy donuts, it just really doesn't get any better than that.

Maple Bacon goodness right there!

One great place we checked out at the recommendation of a friend was The Hub 30A in Seaside Beach. This was the only time we went to Seaside Beach and we were like, why haven't we explored here too?? It's a great spot for families because it's like a giant open space with a stage (they do movie nights and have concerts there) and tons of food vendors to choose from. The day we went, it was kind of empty but it worked out great because it was like we had the whole place to ourselves.

And yes, the food was so on point!

Watching the sunset on the beach was just magical and we all enjoyed it. We only went once but the day we did, we got to see two osprey helicopters go by right above us which was pretty amazing.